Scottsboro, Georgia

Scottsboro, Ga
Scottsboro, named after General John Scott, was at one time a bustling village 4 miles south of Milledgeville.
Farish Carter bought the Scott Plantation and invited his relatives and friends to settle there. In 1837 there were three academies, 10 - 15 houses for summer occupants or permanent settlers. According to History Stories of Milledgeville and Baldwin County "A delightful and cultivated community than Scottsboro of those days can hardly be imagined."
Joanna Troutman, who designed and made the first "lone star flag" of Texas, went to school here.

Scott-Carter-Furman-Smith House 1806-1970's
house was on Irwinton Rd./441 S.
Photo on left taken 1930's by Eberhardt Studio. Photo on right by John Linley and Robbie Hattaway early 1970's

Photograph of the Scott-Carter-Furman-Smith house, Scottsboro, Baldwin County, Georgia, ca. 1941

Militia General John Scott, originally from Virginia, made his home in Baldwin County building the first frame home on S. Wayne St. In 1809 the home, purchased by the state legislature, was made into the home of the governor. In 1806, General Scott purchased a large tract of land in south Baldwin County in what is now called Scottsboro and erected what was called the John Scott-Carter-Furman-Smith House. His friend Jett Thomas had a cottage across the road. Farish Carter purchased the home and plantation about 1813 in addition to an adjoining plantation on the Oconee River "Beuena Vista". Additions to the original structure in were made. Greek revival columns were added in 1820, and a verandah was added in 1880. Owners: General John Scott, Farish Carter, John H. Furman, Farish Carter Furman, Emma LeConte Furman, John R. L. Smith, descendants of John R.L. Smith. The house was demolished in 1968. A subdivision, Furman Estates, is on the site now.

John Clark Woodville Plantation 1920's Woodville Plantation 2005
photo from History of Baldwin County Georgia photo courtesy Wright-Banks Realty

Built by Gen. John Scott circa 1813, this house was sold to Revolutionary Soldier and Governor John Clark in 1819 when Gen. John Scott who moved to Alabama. When Gov. Clark retired from Georgia politics in 1825 he sold his plantation to Seaton Grantland, printer, newspaper editor and congressman. Gov. Clark moved to St. Andrews Bay, Florida as a federal Indian agent where he died on October 12, 1832.
Seaton Grantland, newspaper editor and congressman lived at Woodville Plantation until his death in 1864. His daughter, Ann Virginia Grantland DuBignon inherited the house and land (2,900 acres) and lived here until her death in 1909. Both she and her father are buried at Memory Hill Cemetery. According to History of Baldwin County Georgia, Hester Anne Buffington, nurse to the Grantland-DuBignon family. Born a slave in Georgia in 1810 she was buried in the old negro cemetery on the Woodville Plantation in 1904. The tombstone read "Hester Anne Buffington-Gone to Glory". The location of the cemetery is not known. Christopher P. "Dixie" DuBignon , son of Ann and Charles DuBignon lived here at Woodville until his death in 1930. Over the years the house had various owners and is now beautifully and completely restored by its new owners.

Some Early Families of Scottsboro and surrounding area: Scott, Clark, Carter, Barnes, Bozeman, Turk, Grantland, Furman, Harris, Hall, Cook, Miller, DuBignon, Buckner, Polhill, Thomas, Fulton, Hartridge, Fitzgerald, Meil, Cullen, McDonald, Hansell, Wimberly, Lingold, Batson, Allen, Breedlove, Hubbard, Dubose, Ackridge, Moore, Shinholser.
Farish Carter started the Scottsboro Female Academy in 1828. Dr. Robert C. Brown was the rector. Lucien and Victor LeTaste bought it and changed the name to Georgia Female College. The Scottsboro Male Academy was incorporated in 1831. The trustees were Lucius Q. C. Lamar, Farish Carter, Seaton Grantland, James Bozeman, Green Jordan, Samuel Rockwell, and Thomas W. Baxter. The Chalmers Female College was incorporated in 1851. Washington Baird was Principal and trustees were Seaton Grantland, Farish Carter, A. H. Hansell, J. T. Tucker, H. V. Johnson, Tomlinson Fort, S. K. Talmage, J W. Baker, M. Grieve, I. L. Harris, D. R. Tucker, and James C. Whitaker. According to History of Baldwin County Georgia "the last building remaining from Dr. Brown's Academy was used as a chapel when J.N. Stoney of St. Stephens Episcopal Church conducted for many years a flourishing Mission Church in Scottsboro for the country people living round about."

Photo by Kenneth Kay, 1981, American Memory, Library of Congress
Polhill-Baugh House

A permanent resident of Scottsboro was Judge John Goldwire Polhill. He was the Editor of the Federal Union, State Representative and Judge of Superior Court, Ocmulgee Circuit.
       Judge John Goldwire Polhill was born Oct 16, 1793 in Newington, Screven County, Georgia. He was the son of Thomas Polhill, a Baptist Minister and trustee of Second Baptist Church in Savannah. Thomas Polhill also owned land in Baldwin County, land lot number 295, that had been granted by the state. Judge James Polhill of the Southern Circuit was Thomas Polhill's son also.
      A graduate of Rhode Island College, he studied law in Augusta and was practicing in Milledgeville by 1830. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Church in Milledgeville and acting deacon of the church at the time of his death. He was Judge of Superior Court of Georgia 1835-1836-1837 until the time of his death in April 1838. He was a stockholder on the Great Western Railroad Company which formed in 1835 and a trustee of the Southern Baptist College in Washington, Ga. incorporated in 1836. Judge and Mrs. Harriett A. Polhill lived in Scottsboro on the Gordon Rd. Judge Polhill became sick in 1837, went to Cherokee County for his health, and died there in 1838.
     Judge and Mrs. Harriet A. Polhill built their antebellum Greek Revival house in Scottsboro on the Gordon Rd.   Although Union troops set fire to the house, the family came out of hiding and put the fire out. Little damage was done but marks were still visible in 1968.   Three of their children were Benjamin M. Polhill and John M. Polhill of Macon who died from an accident while surveying the Macon and Brunswick Railroad in 1859 and Louisa Mary Polhill Butts, wife of James R. Butts of Milledgeville. There is a Mr. and Mrs. Polhill buried in unmarked graves at Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville which could possibly be the graves of Judge and Harriett Polhill. The house they lived was owned by John G. Polhill; Hariett A. Polhill 1858-1866; William Stevens estate 1866-1892; William Daniel & Ann E. Stevens Brewer 1892-1918; Millard.Stewart Barnes 1918-1922; L.D. Smith 1922; W.E. Baugh estate 1922-1958. Now owned by Major Joseph & Irene Baugh, and called Baugh Acres, it is kept up beautifully by the Baughs.

Bloodworth house, circa 1840
photo courtesy of Wright Banks Realty, Milledgeville
possibly built by R. R. Wimberly since family cemetery is near property
See Baldwin County Cemeteries for details.

Except from The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865, Eliza Frances Andrews
"About nine o'clock we reached Scotsborough, the little American "Cranford," where the Butlers used to have their summer home. Like Mrs. Gaskell's delightful little borough, it is inhabited chiefly by aristocratic widows and old maids, who rarely had their quiet lives disturbed by any event more exciting than a church fair, till Sherman's army Marched through and gave them such a shaking up that it will give them something to talk about the rest of their days. Dr. Shine and the Texas captain had gone ahead of the wagon and made arrangements for our accommodation. The night was very dismal, and when we drew up in front of the little inn, and saw a big lightwood fire blazing in the parlor chimney, I thought I had never seen anything so bright and comfortable before. When Mrs. Palmer, the landlady, learned who Metta and I were, she fairly hugged us off our feet, and declared that Mrs. Troup Butler's sisters were welcome to her house and everything in it, and then she bustled off with her daughter Jenny to make ready their own chamber for our use. She could not give us any supper because the Yankees had taken all her provisions, but she brought out a jar of pickles that had been hidden up the chimney, and gave us the use of her dining table and dishes - such of them as the Yankees had left - to spread our lunch on. While Charles and Crockett, the servants of Dr. Shine and the colonel, were unpacking our baskets in the dining-room, all our party assembled in the little parlor, the colonel was made master of ceremonies, and a general introduction took place. The Texas captain gave his name as Jarman; the shabby lieutenant in the war-worn uniform - all honor to it - was Mr. Foster, of Florence, Ala.; the Baltimorean was Capt. Mackall, cousin of the commandant at Macon, and the colonel himself had been a member of the Confederate Congress, but resigned to go into the army, the only place for a brave man in these times. So we all knew each other at last and had a good laugh together over the secret curiosity that had been devouring each of us about our traveling companions, for the last twenty-four hours. Presently Crockett announced supper, and we went into the dining-room. We had some real coffee, a luxury we owed the bride, but there was only one spoon to all the company, so she arranged that she should pour out the coffee, I should stir each cup, and Mett pass them to the guests, with the assurance that the cup was made sweeter "by the magic of three pair of fair hands." Then Mrs. Palmer's jar of pickles was brought out and presented with a little tableau scene she had made up beforehand, even coaching me as to the pretty speeches I was to make. I felt very silly, but I hoped the others were too hungry to notice.
        Supper over, we returned to the parlor, and I never spent a more delightful evening. Riding along in the wagon, we had amused ourselves by making up impromptu couplets to "The Confederate Toast," and now that we were comfortably housed, I thanked Capt. Jarman and Dr. Shine for their efforts, in a pair of impromptu verses to the same air. This started up a rivalry in verse-making, each one trying to outdo the other in the absurdity of their composition, and some of them were very funny. When we broke up for the night, there were more theatricals planned by the bride, who disposed a white scarf round her head, placed Metta and me, one on each side of her, so as to make a sort of tableau vivant on the order of a "Three Graces," or a "Faith, Hope, and Charity" group, and backed slowly out of the room, bowing and singing, "Good Night." She really was so pretty and girlish that she could carry off anything with grace, but I hadn't that excuse, and never felt so foolish in my life.
        Mrs. Palmer's chamber, in which Metta and I were to sleep, was a shed room of not very inviting aspect, but the poor woman had done her best for us, and we were too tired to be critical. When I had put my clothes off and started to get into bed, I found there was but one sheet, and that looked as if half of Sherman's army might have slept in it. Mett was too dead sleepy to care; "Shut your eyes and go it blind," she said, and suiting the action to the word, tumbled into bed without looking, and was asleep almost by the time she had touched the pillow. I tried to follow her example, but it was no use. The weather had begun to turn very cold, and the scanty supply of bedclothes the Yankees had left Mrs. Palmer was not enough to keep me warm. Then it began to rain in torrents, and presently I felt a cold shower bath descending on me through the leaky roof. Metta's side of the bed was comparatively dry, and she waked up just enough to pull the cotton bedquilt that was our only covering, over her head, and then went stolidly to sleep again. Meanwhile the storm increased till it was terrible. The rain seemed to come down in a solid sheet, and I thought the old house would be torn from its foundations by the fierce wind that swept over it. The solitary pine knot that had been our only light went out and left us in total darkness, but I was getting so drenched where I lay that I was obliged to move, so I groped my way to an old lounge that stood in a somewhat sheltered corner by the fireplace, and covered myself with the clothing I had taken off. The lounge was so narrow that I couldn't turn over without causing my cover to fall over on the floor, so I lay stiff as a corpse all night, catching little uneasy snatches of sleep between the wildest bursts of the storm. Early in the morning Mrs. Palmer and Jenny came in with bowls and pans to put under the leaks. There were so many that we were quite shingled over, as we lay in bed, with a tin roof of pots and pans, and they made such a rattling as the water pattered into them, that neither of us could sleep any more for laughing. The colonel had given us instructions over night to be ready for an early start, so when another pine knot had been lighted on the hearth, we made haste to dress, before it burned out.
        Mrs. Palmer had contrived to spread us a scanty breakfast of hot waffles, fresh sausages, and parched wheat coffee. But the bride, as is the way of brides, was so long in getting ready that it was nearly ten o'clock before we started on our journey. It had stopped raining by this time, but the weather was so cold and cloudy that I found my two suits of clothing very comfortable. A bitter wind was blowing, and on all sides were to be seen shattered boughs and uprooted trees, effects of the past night's storm. The gentlemen had had all the baggage placed in front, and the floor of the wagon covered with fodder, where we could sit and find some protection from the wind. I should have felt tolerably comfortable if I had not seen that Metta was feeling ill, though she kept up her spirits and did not complain. She said she had a headache, and I noticed that her face was covered with ugly red splotches, which I supposed were caused by the wind chapping her skin. We put our shawls over our heads, but the wind played such antics with them that they were not much protection. The bride, instead of crouching down with us, mounted on top of a big trunk, the coldest place she could find, and cheered us with the comforting announcement that she was going to have pneumonia. It was beautiful to see how the big, handsome colonel devoted himself to her, and I half suspect that was at the bottom of her pneumonia scare - at least we heard no more of it. I offered her some of our brandy, and the doctor made her a toddy, but she couldn't drink it because it was grape and not peach. Everybody seemed disposed -to be silent and out of sorts at first, except Metta and me, who had not yet had adventures enough to surfeit us, and we kept on talking till we got the rest of them into a good humor. We made the gentlemen tell us what their various professions were before the war, and were delighted to learn that our dear colonel was a lawyer. We told him that our father was a judge, and that we loved lawyers better than anybody else except soldiers, whereupon he laughed and advised the other gentlemen, who were all unmarried, to take to the law. I said that about lawyers for the doctor's benefit, because he looked all the time as if he were afraid one of us was going to fall in love with him. I laughed and told Mett that it was she that scared him, with her hair all cropped off from fever, and that dreadful splotched complexion. He heaped coals of fire on my head soon after, when I was cowering down in the body of the wagon, nearly dead with cold, by inviting me to get out and warm myself by taking a walk. My feet were so cold that they felt like lifeless clods and I could hardly stand on them when I first stepped to the ground, but a brisk walk of two miles warmed me up so pleasantly that I was sorry when a succession of mud holes forced me to get back into the wagon."

The new Midway Elementary School was built in Scottsboro in the 1990s.

Scottsboro 1909 Typo Map

Sources: Oconee River, Tales to Tell, Katherine Bowman Walters; Milledgeville, Antebellum Capital, James C. Bonner; History Stories of Milledgeville and Baldwin County, Leola Beeson; History of Baldwin County Georgia, Anna Maria Green Cook; Architecture of Middle Georgia, The Oconee Area, John Linley; 1840 Federal Census for Baldwin County, Ga.; 1880 Federal Census for Baldwin County, Ga; The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, Eliza Frances Andrews
Sources:1830 Federal Census; 1840 Federal Census; ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA. PASSED IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1835; ACTS of the General Assembly of the STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1836; ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1837; ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1838; ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA 1965;
Macon Telegraph July 19, 1859; Georgia Baptists : historical and biographical , by J. H. Campbell, Atlanta Consititution, Feb. 23, 1913; Architecture of Middle Georgia, The Oconee Area, John Linley; Coopers Memoirs, Cullen Wood